Oregon Catholic board lends support to ballot against same-sex marriage

The Oregon Catholic Conference is expected to support a ballot that would ban same-sex marriage when its board meets today, reported The Oregonian.

Measure 36 on the Nov. 2 ballot would amend the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage, and it would recognize marriage only between a man and a woman.

The Church’s support of this ballot comes as no surprise since Archbishop John Vlazny of Portland has been outspoken about the sanctity of the sacrament marriage – as the union of one man and one woman – from an early on in the same-sex marriage debate.

In a column in the diocesan Catholic Sentinel April 15, the archbishop wrote that marriage "no longer involves two persons, but three, husband, wife and the Lord…There simply is no sacramental marriage without a man and a woman."

The Catholic Church will be joining the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in supporting the measure. The Mormons already issued a statement Wednesday saying their church "favors a constitutional amendment preserving marriage as a lawful union of a man and a woman." There are 139,507 Mormons in Oregon.

Other Christian denominations support same-sex marriage and are taking a stand against the ballot measure.